Upper-Division

DANM 130 Embodiment in New Media Art

Engages the topic of embodiment within new media art theory and practice. Focus is on embodiment within performance, time-based, electronic, and new media arts practice. Students produce a final paper and artistic project on the topic. Lower-division undergraduates may enroll with permission of instructor.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment restricted to juniors and seniors.

DANM 132 Literary Games: The Intersection of Writing and Play

Hands-on course surveying the thriving micro-genres in the neutral zone between games and literature. Students read, play, and author stories that couldn't exist on a printed page. Interactive fiction, algorithmic poetry, and brand-new experiments.

Credits

5

General Education Code

PR-C

DANM 133 Introduction to Electronics and Physical Computing

Introduces electronics using the open-source Arduino platform. Learn how to build interactive circuits through hands-on tutorials. In a workshop environment, students acquire the technical skills required to create electronic artwork. No previous experience required.

Credits

5

General Education Code

PR-C

DANM 134 Hacking for Artists: Experimenting with Digital Media

Hacking is the modification, reconfiguration, and reuse of computer code or hardware to create new functionality. Course encourages a hands-on approach to digital-media creation including the basics of computer programming and hacking techniques. No programming experience required.

Credits

5

General Education Code

PR-C

DANM 135 Kinematics: Motion and Machine Art

Explores the history of machines. Kinetic art is presented including: animatronic puppetry, balance mobiles, light compositions, logic and mechanical art, interactive sculpture, and resonance cymatics. Students utilize automation techniques to create art projects using a modular set of gears, linkages, cams, belts, and springs. Discussion of technological advances in the field of kinetic art and its impact on society.

Credits

5

General Education Code

PE-T

DANM 136 Mapmaking for Environmental Activism

Introduces the basic principles of geographic analysis and visual communication through mapmaking. Projects focus on environmental issues, and class discusses best practices for distributing information and communicating ideas.

Credits

5

General Education Code

PE-T

DANM 138 Procession: Where Sculpture Meets Costumes Meets Performance

Teaches techniques to animate sculptures, such as wearables/body art, mobility, puppetry, sound, light, or projection. Covers building techniques and how to incorporate individual creativity in a collaborative setting to create a common theme for the procession.

Credits

5

General Education Code

PR-C

DANM 140 Introduction to 3D Printing, Laser Cutting, and More

Learn to design functional objects, sculpture, and other digitally inspired forms in a variety of 3-D applications (Cinema 4-D, Maya, AutoCad, Rhino, SketchUp), then produce those models as physical objects with a variety of rapid prototyping methods including additive 3-D printing, CNC milling, vacuum forming, and laser cutting.

Credits

5

Cross Listed Courses

ART 105

General Education Code

PR-C

DANM 141 Introduction to Soft Interaction: Fiber Arts and Reactive Technologies

Students learn to create interactive artwork through the combination of fiber arts and reactive technology. Course explores electronic art that is worn or touched, and discovers new developments in eTextiles that allow for this interaction.

Credits

5

General Education Code

PR-C

DANM 143 Projects in Ecological Art

By investigating topics related to water in California, students produce works of digital and new media art that engage with environmental issues and the local community.

Credits

5

Repeatable for credit

Yes

General Education Code

PE-H

DANM 144 Surveillance and Digital Design

How can we understand surveillance through a digital arts lens? What are the connections between surveillance and race, gender, sexuality, and class? How can we challenge oppressive surveillance policies in creative ways? In this interdisciplinary course students critically engage with the topic of surveillance by interacting with important scholarship and artworks in digital arts and surveillance studies. Knowledge on the subject deepened through class discussions, submission of written reflections, and group creative responses to the course content.

Credits

5

General Education Code

IM

DANM 146 Game Design in Participatory Performance

Students get a grounding in the fundamentals of game design and character driven performance. Meetings focus on a combination of understanding current practice across various styles of interactivity, and practice of participatory performance culminating in a short group performance with participatory elements.

Credits

5

General Education Code

PR-C

DANM 147 Introduction to Queer Game Studies

Examines writing about Queer games—both academic and non-academic—as well as contemporary Queer games. Students write an essay that synthesizes Queer theory and game studies and also answer a few short questions about each reading. A midterm draft of the game and a final prototype are required, as well as a post-mortem as a final paper. Throughout the course, students gain experience in looking critically at pieces of digital media art, creating short video games, and reading Queer theory as well as game studies writing.

Credits

5

General Education Code

IM

DANM 148 Introduction to Game Prototyping

Introductory course on the process of game prototyping. By playing seminal works made by oppressed creators in the industry, and performing close readings of their mechanics, students build games literacy and learn how to use free and low-cost tools to make personal, fluid work. Engages in the creation of games on a weekly basis, while thinking about the political, artistic, and cultural values the work embodies. Throughout this process, students discuss different models of prototyping, iterate on game design procedure, and reflect deeply on their finished work.

Credits

5

General Education Code

PR-C

DANM 149 Intro to Games Culture

Survey course on game communities. Games are a globally entrenched medium, with communities of players gathering together both online and offline. Students map how different communities navigate status and mastery, study online fan groups, and document their interactions to gain a better understanding of the dynamics at play. Investigates how marginalized communities can be left behind in the search for mastery, and as a class students create tools for intervening in our own communities when exclusionary trends are seen.

Credits

5

General Education Code

PE-H

DANM 199 Tutorial

Independent digital arts and new media research project under the guidance of a digital arts and new media faculty member or other faculty. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency. Enrollment restricted to juniors and seniors.

Credits

5

Repeatable for credit

Yes

Quarter offered

Fall, Winter, Spring

DANM 199F Tutorial

Independent digital arts and new media research project under the guidance of a digital arts and new media faculty member or other faculty. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency.

Credits

2

Repeatable for credit

Yes

Quarter offered

Fall, Winter, Spring

Cross-listed courses that are managed by another department are listed at the bottom.

Cross-listed Courses

CMPM 290J Playable Media

Focuses on media, such as computer games, that invite and structure play. Work includes building and critiquing a series of prototypes; studying major examples in the field; and discussing both theoretical and practice-oriented texts. Enrollment by permission of instructor. Enrollment restricted to graduate students.

Credits

5

Cross Listed Courses

DANM 250D

Instructor

Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Robin Hunicke

Quarter offered

Spring

CMPM 290P Topics in Computational Cinematography

Focuses on discussion of recent advances in visual storytelling in graphical environments. Major topics covered are: intelligent camera control, shot-compositions, lighting design, interactive storytelling, and computational techniques associated with these applications. Class consists of in-class discussions and student presentations of research papers and a final student project.

Credits

5

Cross Listed Courses

DANM 290P

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

CSE 265 Human-Computer Interaction

Theory and hands-on practice to understand what makes user interfaces usable and accessible to diverse individuals. Covers human senses and memory and their design implications, requirement solicitation, user-centered design and prototyping techniques, and expert and user evaluations. Individual research project. Interdisciplinary course for art, social science and engineering graduate students. Students cannot receive credit for this course and CSE 165.

Credits

5

Cross Listed Courses

DANM 231

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

MUSC 206B Computer-Assisted Composition

Study of techniques of algorithmic and computer-assisted composition in a variety of contemporary idioms. Topics may include stochastic methods, generative grammars, search strategies, and the construction of abstract compositional designs and spaces. Final project for course involves students formulating and algorithmically implementing their own theoretical assumptions and compositional strategies.

Credits

5

Cross Listed Courses

DANM 217

Instructor

Larry Polansky

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

Quarter offered

Spring

MUSC 254L John Cage: Innovation, Collaboration, and Performance Technologies

In-depth examination of John Cage's interdisciplinary work, his pioneering activity in live electronic technology, and his influence in current multimedia creativity. Approximately one-half of the seminary is devoted to student research and creative projects and reflect Cage's legacy.

Credits

5

Cross Listed Courses

DANM 254L

Instructor

Amy Beal

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to juniors, seniors, and graduate students. Upper-division undergraduates may enroll with permission of instructor.

MUSC 267 Workshop in Computer Music and Visualization

Graduate-level techniques and procedures of computer music composition and visualization. Practical experience in the UCSC electronic music studio with computer composition systems and software, including visualization and interactive performance systems. Extensive exploration of music and interactive graphic programs such as Max/MSP/Jitter. Enrollment is by permission of instructor; appropriate graduate experience required. Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

Credits

2

Cross Listed Courses

DANM 267

Instructor

Larry Polansky, David Kant

THEA 251 Graduate Student Production

Participation by a graduate student in a departmental production of a play, dance concert, or other performance event under supervision of the Instructor-of-Record. Rehearsals culminate in public performance. Enrollment is restricted to graduate students and determined by audition with the instructor and in consultation with the director of graduate studies.

Credits

5

Cross Listed Courses

DANM 251

THEA 290A Research Methods for Performance and Practice

Introduces the emergent professional artist-scholar into the discipline of what is called practice-as/practice-based/practice-led research in performance and new media. Explores the rationales, conceptual frameworks, and perils that underpin research based on the researcher's own creative endeavors, and that enable the researcher to place their own practice within larger artistic and theoretical paradigms in a written document. (Formerly offered as Text Analysis.)

Credits

5

Cross Listed Courses

DANM 290A

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students in theater arts.

THEA 294 Future Stages

Working in an experimental theater with access to new performance technologies, course explores how cross-media practice can expand on basic theatrical relationships in new and culturally relevant ways.

Credits

5

Cross Listed Courses

DANM 250H

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.